Electric circuit breakers are commonly used to protect branch circuits in residential, commercial and industrial buildings against overload and fault conditions. Basically, a circuit breaker comprises a pair of separable contacts, an operating mechanism for effecting separation of the contacts, and a tripping mechanism which automatically releases the operating mechanism upon the occurrence of an overload or fault condition.
Circuit breaker and other circuit interrupters are often constructed with contacts and blades to form the electrical disconnect. Usually a torsion or compression spring is used to provide a linear force as the displacement between the contacts is changed. When the circuit breaker is operated, closing the contacts requires energy to overcome the deflection of the contacts. Opening the contacts requires energy to break the arc generated by breaking the electrical current flowing through the contacts.
The prior art as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,504 issued to Maier discloses a circuit breaker utilizing main and arcing contacts which open and close in pre-determined sequence. Force is applied to the contacts by the compression and release of springs attached to the contacts. As the breaker is operated from an open to a closed position, a period of time passes from the contacts first touching until the breaker latches. During this time period, the operating mechanism must provide energy to overcome the deflection of the spring on the contact blade. The energy drained from the spring slows the operation of the breaker.
The need arises to apply force to a plurality of contact blades in an efficient manner to overcome the problems associated with opening or closing sequence between main or arcing contacts or both.